Giant's Causeway
The Giant’s Causeway and Causeway Coast is an important area of study of basaltic volcanism.
The Giant's Causeway is a unique example of columnar jointing with 40,000 interlocking basalt columns resulting from a volcanic eruption. The tops of the mostly hexagonal columns form stepping stones that lead from the cliff foot and disappear under the sea. A succession of lava flows from the Tertiary era can be distinguished along the coast.
Community Perspective: Northern Ireland's most popular attraction and a natural playground for visitors. The area with the ‘steps’ is compact but you can spend hours hiking along the coast. There's also a fairly recent visitor centre. Solivagant has shared all the current practical details to be aware of (and there are many...).
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Solivagant
In May 2024 we revisited the Giants Causeway (GC) for the first time in many years. There is a confusing range of logistical/cost options/issues for a visit and, since 6 of the 10 reviews currently here predate the opening of the Visitor Centre (VC) in 2012 which created a new situation, and the others don’t address the options, it seems worthwhile trying to clarify matters as of our visit. I concentrate on those for arriving by car but some will also apply to those traveling by Bus/Train/Coach/Bike.
a. Any visit to the GC itself is free - the beaches and cliff paths are open to all without any payment. The complexities/costs relate to the VC and to car parking.
b. The National Trust’s (NT) large and architecturally stylish modern VC is in a nicely hidden grass-topped building on the cliffs around 1km from the beach where the actual Causeway is situated. Although it might seem so from the positioning of its front doors, this does NOT have to be visited to get to the GC footpaths and, if you do, you will have to pay. Otherwise, just walk round or up and across its grass roof! Each person going inside for ANY purpose has to buy a “Visitor Experience” (VE) Ticket whose price “includes reserved on-site parking, guided tours with our award-winning storytelling team, use of hand-held audio guides, access to the Visitor Centre's exhibition and interpretation area, the shop, café, accessibility aids and use of all facilities” (inc its Toilets! Though there are other external toilets nearby - details unknown). The VE price varies according to season - current “Peak” (Mar - Oct approx) is £15.50 per person.
c. Note also that a car with e.g 3 occupants needs 3 VE tickets if all are going into the VC even though there is only 1 car park space required! Rather than paying £46.50 for 3 VE tickets you could drop 2 passengers outside the parking area and get your “parking” for £15.50 - BUT you will then only have ONE VE entry ticket…. The other 2 would have to miss out the VC etc (I won’t go down the road of whether you might “share” the “wristband ticket” in series!). A number of parking alternatives exist at varying distances from the GC but, even if you park elsewhere and thus don’t have to pay for the VC parking, everyone still has to pay full price per person IF they want to enter the VC building.
d. The nearest other place to park is the Causeway Hotel adjacent to the VC. It charges £10 per vehicle and an equivalent voucher is provided towards purchases at the Hotel. The Hotel is “Historic”, dating back to 1886 when visitors first started arriving in large numbers. Like the VC, it sits inside the WHS boundary and is “owned” (but not run) by NT. Your £10 spent with them does not entitle you to any of the VE facilities. We didn’t use it but met people who had and were happy with the deal - if you don’t want the VC facilities it seems a good one IMO, as you are probably going to buy a coffee or 2 somewhere anyway and this gives you a chance to explore the hotel’s “Victorian ambience”! I have no idea how busy its parking gets and whether they sometimes have to close it to non residents. If you stay at the hotel (B+B c£200p room pn and up) you get “complementary” VE and even shuttle bus tickets!!!
e. The NT has another car park titled “Causeway Coast Way” intended for walkers around 500m east of the VC which charges £10 per car for up to 1 whole day (pay by phone only), so is better than the VC if you have multiple occupants and don’t want any VE aspect. A footpath from it leads to the GC cliff paths from where you can walk down/round using the "Shepherd’s Steps" (see later).
f. Another option is to park for free at Dundarave Car Park in the village of Bushmills 2+ miles from the GC VC. A “Park and Ride” service operates from there between Mar/Oct – “go to the Bushmills Visitor Information Centre at the car park…….and…take advantage of the 'Green Ticket' savings, which reduce adult ticket prices to £11 per adult and £5.50 per child, which includes your bus ticket and Visitor Experience tickets”. That makes you dependent on bus schedules of course (which I can’t discover!). Nb this bus is different from the “regular” 401 bus from Coleraine which passes through Bushmills on its way to the GC. You could of course park there for free, give up on the bus and VE and walk up to the GC but a better place to do that is probably from the nearby (and also free) Ballintrea Salmon Rock Beach Car Park taking the coastal path.
g. There are other establishments nearby which may or may not provide parking more cheaply or for free if you purchase something from them e.g on this map The Nook Restaurant and Finn McCool’s GC Hostel. There is also the upper Bushmill Railway Station which, as per the most recent Web entry, charges £8 per car. I have no direct knowledge of any of them and you are on your own if you try them!!! Roadside or verge parking nearby seems impossible, dangerous and subject to fines.
h. Alongside the direct footpath between the VC and GC there is a paved road with a shuttle bus running up and down at an extra £1pp each way, even if you have paid for a VE ticket!! You can however use it even if you haven’t paid for a VE and you might want to if the weather is bad! If you are doing some walking after seeing the GC then a path continues eastwards, first following the shore and then climbing to join the Red Trail which ends at the Amphitheatre. You then have to return along Red Trail, climb Shepherd’s Steps and, either to do the Yellow Trail or continue to the VC along the cliffs. See all the Trails here.
i. Members of the NT or any organization affiliated via INTO get their VE ticket, including Car parking of course, (and even their shuttle bus!) for free.
j. A further complexity is the “requirement” to pre-book the VE. In theory, to get a car park place at the VC you should have booked (and paid - other than members who avoid this by entering their membership ref when booking) on-line in advance to get an arrival time slot which “guarantees” a parking place. Pre-Covid the GC was getting 1 million visitors pa but has not returned to those levels. A large number, however, arrive on coaches (one can even get a day return tour from Dublin) so don’t need any parking and don’t stay that long. My understanding is that such tours do NOT usually include VC entrance or Shuttle but use a separate “group entrance” at the side of the VC which takes them directly through to the Shuttle bus stop and the road down to the GC - if you are booking a coach tour, and that is important to you then check the details. My impression was that, provided you have not chosen e.g mid day on a fine Sunday or bank holiday, you are unlikely to find the parking full even if you haven’t pre booked. As “booking” is only “recommended” I presume there must be ways for the “unbooked” of “holding” one’s car just outside the car park whilst one goes inside the VC to buy the required VE tickets.
k. Even on an early Thursday afternoon in May the Causeway itself was uncomfortably busy, though this cleared somewhat by 3pm …but still with occasional waves of coach parties arriving by shuttle. Best to target early or late? The VC car park “closes” at 5.30pm but you can still remove a vehicle via the “Exit” after that time - so why not make full use of a fine evening and have the place largely to yourself? The trails around the actual GC are a very worthwhile part of a visit, providing fine views and further geological sights. Just visiting the GC itself would, IMO, be missing out. (All/most Coach based visits will not allow enough time for such walks beyond the immediate GC area). We were told that, if we stayed out walking after the VC closed at 5.30, we could return our loaned audio guides in a bin provided for the purpose! Surprisingly, the sets do not require a deposit.
l. Finally, given its role within the options, is the VC Exhibition worth seeing? My view would be ..…hardly. As NT members we got our visit (and car parking) for free but I wouldn’t have wanted to pay £15.50 pp for it! It does have a rather nice relief model of the site and contains sections on the geology and its study/tourism history. There is also a rather childish video of the Myth of Finn McCool. We thought it generally rather thin on content in the spaces left over after the enormous shop and café. There are 2 Audio guide versions - “Standard” (with a lot on the legend) and “Geological”. We possibly made a mistake by taking 2 of the former but even the “Standard” version told us about the “ball and socket” (concave/convex) jointing in the rocks (as in my review photo) - or you can read this learned article!! Whether we would have missed the things it pointed out is hard to say – its 8 (?) “stop points” are clearly marked by posts along the lower trail. We also saw and heard a couple of “guided tours” but did not regret not being on them - rather crowded and “high” on McCool tales!! But we all vary regarding our concept of “Value” - if you had traveled half way around the World, had long dreamed of visiting the GC and had done little preparatory reading then you might have a different view about spending a mere £15.50pp extra!! Incidentally - the VC contains a wall of tourism-related certificates and awards but not the UNESCO WH one - staff didn’t even know there was such a thing!
Ilya Burlak
I visited Giant's Causeway in the spring of 2017 by driving half the island of Eire from Dublin to see the unique natural phenomenon. The Causeway is the result of volcanic activity dating back 50-to-60 million of years. The cooling lava shaped itself over time as several clusters of basalt columns of differing height, each no more than a couple of feet in diameter. Most of the columns are hexagonal in shape, but the number of sides can vary between four and eight. In their mass, they look precisely like a causeway for getting into – or out of – the sea. Local legends ascribed its creation to the mythological giant Finn McCool, who was challenged to a fight by an unfriendly giant from Scotland and needed to build a way across the sea for the two of them to meet. Hence, the Giant’s Causeway. On the Scottish island of Staffa there are similar basalt columns, corroborating the folklore. The lively audioguide issued to every paying visitor gets a lot of play out of the legend.
The core of the site, where those basalt clusters are concentrated, is relatively compact, but the surrounding coastal area has miles of trails to explore and offers plenty of other rock formations of interest, from Giant's Boot to Giant's Organ. Budget three to four hours for a proper exploration of the site. If the weather is good, you may decide to extend your stay. It is a unique and incredible site, capable of impressing even a relative nonadmirer of natural wonders.
The visitor center, opened just a few years ago, is a pretty amazing structure built into the curves of the terrain. It is technically just a gateway to the World Heritage site, not part of the site itself, but worth checking out.
Giant’s Causeway is situated on the northern coast of the Emerald Isle. It is more than three hours away by car from Dublin, which has to be at the outer edge for a comfortable day trip for most people. From Belfast and most locations in Northern Ireland, it is only about an hour away.
Read more from Ilya Burlak here.
Jay T
Giant's Causeway, in Northern Ireland, exceeds expectations. This geologic formation of hexagonal basalt columns extending into the ocean is a natural playground for visitors, and I had a great time exploring the rocks in September 2015. The same volcanic processes that created these columns also created similar rock formations on the island of Staffa off the west coast of Scotland, and Irish legend has tied the two together with folk tales. On the Irish side, Giant's Causeway is located at the bottom of a hill on the north coast, and when I approached in late afternoon, the waves were crashing loudly against the rocks. The columns spike up at varying levels, creating an uneven surface upon which to walk, but from above, the hexagons appear rather like a giant gameboard for Settlers of Catan. I thoroughly enjoyed spending a couple of hours wandering to and from the ocean along the rock columns, and I am glad Northern Ireland has such a fine location as its only entry on the World Heritage Site list. This is a landscape not to be missed!
Logistics: Giant's Causeway can be reached by a combination of train or bus from either Belfast or Londonderry, but it may be more easily reached by private transportation.
Klaus Freisinger
I visited the Giant's Causeway as a daytrip by train and bus from (London)derry via Coleraine. You arrive at a huge new visitor centre, and then you can set off to explore the formations on your own or with a guide (quite useful for the background info on the history, nature and geology). I was lucky to visit on a warm and sunny September day, and really enjoyed walking along the shore, admiring the rock formations and tidepools, and of course climbing on some of the rocks. Derry is quite an interesting and historic city, and the train ride along the Antrim coast is really beautiful, plus you can see lots of birds of all types. When you happen to enjoy good weather, this is definitely a fantastic site.
Sophie Narker
i visited this site in 2010 and thought it was a remarkable experience, the rock formations are just so intriguing and wonderful. i did the 6km walk & the walk across the old wooden bridge and i thought that it was the best thing I've ever experience. if you are into geology & history this place is define lay the place for you.
Clyde
I visited this WHS this Summer 2012 by car on a splendid sunny day. I went there early before the crowds and I was practically alone, climbing the hexagonal basalt rocks close to the sea. The Audioguide from the Visitor Centre is very informative and quite interesting. I did the whole trekking trail to The Organ and right to The Chimney where I spotted several Fulmars and Kittiwakkes nesting on the cliffs. The Antrim Coast and Causeway Road are very scenic and on the way back I stopped several times to take incredible pictures. Visit the small fishing towns along the coast for some good food and a pleasant atmosphere.
Els Slots
The Giant's Causeway might not be the best-known WHS, but it really is a classic. Already in the late 19th century, it was a tourist site, luring visitors with its exceptional natural beauty. Its peculiar volcanic features have been the center of a scientific debate between Volcanists (who claimed that it was the result of volcanic eruptions) and Neptunists (who pointed to the crystallization of seawater), and still attract geologists from all over the world. Before science, the stones were part of a legend, in which the Irish Giant Finn Maccool built the Causeway as stepping-stones to Scotland to meet his rival Giant Benandonner. And the Causeway was part of the first batch of UK WHS, which means that it was selected earlier than landmarks like Westminster and the Tower of London.
In 2008 the Causeway Coast still is Northern Ireland's most popular tourist attraction. I visited on a stormy Saturday in February when there were about 100 other people scattered around the site. The stretch of coast included in the WHS is about 6 km long. I did the circular walk, starting along the ridge and returning via the road near the coast. This way the most spectacular area (the polygonal basalt blocks) is at the end of the tour. The walking itself is a pleasure also, as you see many other volcanic features along the way. The stormy weather made the waves of the Atlantic Ocean bump into the black rocks with much noise and splatter.
A remarkable thing is that there is no entrance fee to the site. Near the parking lot, there are only some souvenir shops and a building by the National Trust, which owns the area. There have been a lot of discussions last year about whether a private company was allowed to take over. It was decided against, but I hope the National Trust will make more of it than what it has now and produce a really good visitor center. There are so many stories to tell about this site.
Ian Cade
All of Britain's natural World Heritage sites contain coastlines, but this is perhaps the most unique and recognisable of them all. We had a lovely day trip here from Belfast and the whole of the County Antrim coast was very impressive.
The Causeway itself is fairly small, consisting of three small peninsulas of the incredible polygonal columns, these are really impressive and the most accessible and concentrated group of its kind. Everyone that visits seems to climb all over them, and I must admit I had great fun clambering up and down, using the columns as steppingstones.
One interesting aspect about the inscription is that ICOMOS recommended that the site should also be included as a cultural heritage site, due to its role in Irish Legend and also the influence it had on the European Romantic movement. This was never acted on, I guess it is a political decision as it would have meant extending the site to include similar rock formations in Scotland, thus removing the one solely Northern Irish site on the list.
As I said we visited on a day trip from Belfast (a really interesting city oozing with contemporary history), which was a nice easy way to get there. However there are plenty of ways to get to the Causeway from many different locations. The east Antrim coast was especially nice with lots of small fishing villages, which would provide great places to stay for a few nights of rest. Just around the coast from the Causeway is Royal Portrush Golf Course, regarded as one of the finest courses in the world, and it would be a real treat to get in 18 holes on this lovely piece of coastline.
The Causeway was a nice place to visit and worthy of its inclusion on the list.
Christer Sundberg
After attending a business conference on western Ireland i couldn’t wait to get myself on a bus up to Northern Ireland and the famous Giants Causeway coast line - Northern Irelands only World Heritage Site and a remarkable piece of nature scenery that I’ve been interested in visiting for quite some time.
Spending the day on the bus from Galway to Londonderry and then by train to Colerain on the Northern coast gave me a thorough view of the famous green Irish landscape and the small villages along the way. And when the bus passed the northwestern mountains, with its snow covered peaks, my thoughts went immediately to the Lords of the Ring. And it would not have surprised me a bit if a couple of hobs had hopped on the bus….or maybe the actually did…?
A twenty-minute taxi-ride took ne from Colerain station straight to the Causeway Hotel, opened in 1836 and located right by the coastline cliffs. If you ever decide to visit the Causeway, the Causeway Hotel is an absolute must and just as classical in its own Northern Irelandish way, as Raffels in Singapore or The Ritz in London.
The actual World Heritage Causeway Coast runs further down towards Belfast and includes quite a lot more than the areas north of Bushmill where I went. But it is on the other hand here where you find the classical part and probably the most beautiful and dramatic scenery. It is also here you will find the famous symmetrical, honeycomb-like columns of dark rock called basalt that descends from the base of the high cliffs into the water. There is an old Irish legend that tells of the Irish giant Finn MacCool who challenged Bennandonner, a Scottish giant for a fight. But since there was no boat large enough to carry the Scottish giant, Finn MacCool built a causeway of gigantic stones so that the Scottish giant could travel on dry land. Whether you decide to believe the legend or the scientific explanation its up to you…
Walking along the windy Giants Causeway coast makes you realise the power and magnificence of nature. And regardless of your latest career move you are reduced into the small and insignificant human being we all are in the end. And if the Causeway Coast does not exhaust you, why not take the opportunity to drive down to the nearby village of Bushmill and visit the whiskey distillery and down a well-earned glass from the oldest whiskey distillery in the world.
Dolly Bufter
My daughter & I visited in May 2003. It is an incredible experience. We arrived late in the day so missed visiting the information center but the causeway itself was fabulous and worth every minute getting there. Walking along the coast and climbing the stones allows you to imagine the impact on the lives of all who live & lived near here. Photos don't give you half the idea of how phenominal this site is.
John A. Wilcox
I visited the Giant's Causeway near Christmas of 2001. Not only was there few people around during that time but what made the experience that much more exciting was that it felt that you were the only person there in a mystical experience between you, the ocean and old Gaelic memories.
It is a bit of a walk up and down from the visitor's centre, but the only time I would recommend it would be when the buses are not running full of tourists.
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Site Info
- Full Name
- Giant's Causeway and Causeway Coast
- Unesco ID
- 369
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Inscribed
- 1986
- Type
- Natural
- Criteria
-
7 8
- Categories
- Natural landscape - Volcanic and thermal
- Link
- By ID
Site History
1986 Inscribed
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